Installing OrangeHRM On Ubuntu

OrangeHRM is a Human Resource tool for all sorts of HR things, which I’m sure is great… I have no idea how good it is, but an install was required, I had to install it, and the docs to install it are aweful. They mainly assume you are using AMP, on Windows and are very unclear as to what’s actually required. On Ubuntu you need:
sudo aptitude install apache2 mysql-server-5.0 php5 php5-mysql

If it’s a fresh install make sure you use a root password for mysql, go grab the tar.gz file from their website and extract it somehwhere temporarily. It’ll extract a file and a directory

orangehrm-2.4.2

orangehrm-quick-start-guide.html

Move it to /var/www removing the digits at the end.

Then all you need to do is go to http://you_server/orangehrm and follow the on screen Wizard. If you are getting blank screens like I was (Thanks for that PHP) it means you likely forgot php-mysql like I did. Oops. It should have been obvious, but Apache logs gave no errors and PHP gave me blank pages… :-(

PS: It looks very flash. Perhaps worth demoing to Finance/HR people if your company has a 90s application that still live on ! Its even got commercial support and a bug tracker built in which can submit bugs back to OrangeHRM.

I installed OrangeHRM as you said, but when I look I can see the config files: http://myserver/orangehrm/lib/confs
This shouldn’t be. Some more instructions are necessary to make sure that people install it securely.

check your
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default
file and find the Directory section for /var/www/ and the option:

Options Indexes….

Where it continues after the dots, change the “Indexes” to “-Indexes”, that will disallow people to browse your Web server. This is more of an Ubuntu… well I’d say bug, but more a gotcha. By default I’d leave it in -Indexes mode, but I imagine they had their reasons.

I am using Google Chrome (and ubuntu 10.04), and when I type in the //localhost/orangehrm, it just downloads a php script file. I did not assign a root password for mysql, only entered my password to “sudo”.
What do you think is causing this issue?

You should really use a root mysql password, not sure what you mean by entering your sudo password? I assume you mean when you ran aptitude? When it just downloads a php file it’s usually becasue the php module is not active. Try this:

Félim,
I tried running sudo a2enmod php5 and the result I got was:
“Module php5 already enabled”
I stopped apache and restarted and got the same result (downloaded php file). I am drawing a blank, how do I set a root password for mysql?

Where NEWPASSWORD is whatever you want yours to be, that first “password” is telling mysqladmin you want to utilise the password utility. The php issue is really weird. It’s likely nothing to do with chrome..

Where did you put the files inthe end? In /var/www ? Could you give me a directory listing with ls -l from /var/www jsut so I can see?

I’m thinking I should probably write a proper step by step of the install, I’d done it in a very “by the way” above.. few folk have been asking.

I think that this might be an Apache issue, I have no group titled “Apache” and no user titled “Apache”. I was directed to the faq that says to chown the orangehrm folder to user apache, when I do that I get:

Ok hold on, in Ubuntu/Debian the apache user and group are both called “www-data” so it’s correct apache doesn’t exist. If that mysqladmin command failed then it means you have a root password. Try this:

mysql -u root -p

That’ll log you into the mysql terminal, it’ll ask for a password, try your sudo password in case you accidentally set the mysql root password to that. If not might have to reset it for you. I think I’ll write a clearer “full” how to on this.. :)

Hmm that’s weird you shouldn’t really be adding yourself to that group, it should run independently. Strange, I wonder what’s going on. How are you stopping and starting apache?

sudo /etc/initi.d/apache2 stop

Should be the way to do it, just running apache at the command line will mean your user tries to run it which might explain the permisison issues. Bad idea to do that though. Ok you;ve reminded me I should really do a step by step of this… let me see can I get this done by tomorrow. To be honest this was never really meant to be a guide, more a in case it doesn’t work tip. I make no promises but I’ll try get it done tomorrow ;)

I just replied to your e-mail, everything worked awesome! The only thing is that I did not get the prompt for the MySQL root password. Other than that, the install went just as you spelled out! Thanks again for all of your help!

Hi,
I have successfully installed orangehrm-2.6.3 on ubuntu 10.04.
But when I am login – the page show ‘internal error occurred’ message.
Also I am not able to browse pim and leave module.
what is the problem? I am unable to find that…

Hmm since so many folk have tried to install it but failed I think I’ll redo the install step by step and stick it online. I never expected this to be overly exact. I’ll fire you a reply when I’ve done it.